Pages - Menu

Friday, April 22, 2011

World's Most Expensive Apartment Sold for £136 million

Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man and president of Ukrainian football club Shakhtar Donetsk now calls the most expensive apartment in the world, home. Since Akhmetov is worth 10billion, this 136 million (approx Rs. 983 crore) purchase would hardly make a dent in his fortune. Spread across about 25,000 sqft, the luxury apartment - at One Hyde Park in posh Knightsbridge, London - is almost the same size as the Silicon Valley mansion Russian billionaire Yuri Milner recently bought for a mere $100 million, said a Forbes report.

Akhmetov bought this unfurnished apartment, and plans to spend a further 60 million (approx Rs. 433 crore) to renovate it. A Daily Mail report says, the apartment is equipped with a wine cellar, and residents are can order room service from the Mandarin Oriental hotel next door. Even the service charge is record-breaking which is at 150 (approx Rs. 10,000) per square metre per year.

One Hyde Park's security features include bullet-proof windows and a panic room, and entitle this 44-year-old self-made billionaire to security that comes as a courtesy of former British Special Forces officers.

The other luxury features of the building include a private cinema, a 21-metre swimming pool, saunas, a gym, a golf simulator, and not forgetting an underground passage to a Heston Blumenthal restaurant, known for its reinterpretation of traditional British dishes, such as Powdered Anjou Pigeon, Mock Turtle Soup and the Beef Royal served at King James II's coronation in 1685.

The least expensive flat at One Hyde Park, one of London's most expensive addresses, is a one-bedroom costing about 6.75 million (approx Rs. 48 crore).

The previous most expensive flat sold at 115 million (approx Rs. 831 crore) in 2008, in a Central London development at St James's Square.